On the Size of the Safety Area around the Launch Trajectory of a Rocket

Abstract

The safety zone around the flight path of a rocket is determined by the fall of debris in the case of an accidental explosion or commanded termination. The trajectory of a tumbling body in a vertical plane is determined by specifying the velocity, flight path angle and angle of attack as functions of time. This involves the lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients as functions of the angle of attack over a full circle—0 to 360 degrees—to account for the tumbling motion. The problem is reduced to a third-order non-linear differential equation for the angle of attack by using the approximation of free fall coordinates. The analytical and numerical solutions show that two types of tumbling fall are possible, one with rotation and the other with oscillation. The tumbling trajectories are plotted and discussed for a variety of initial conditions, mass and aerodynamic properties of the tumbling body.

Keywords

• rocket trajectory
• free fall
• non-linear aerodynamic forces
• trajectory simulation